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How are you all keeping? I'm from Ireland and just picked myself up a BMW 318 CI M-Sport. I had a look around the internet for a good e46 based website and came across yours.

Anyway after years of driving Japanese cars...

1.5 Toyota Cynos:

2.2 BB4 Honda Prelude:

... I took the plunge and got myself a Euro.

I was originally looking for something with a bit more poke but comfort and sense won out in the end. Petrol is up around €1.50 a litre here now and you still have road tax (€568 for the year on the BMW with it being a 1.9) and insurance to pay! I'll treat myself to something for the weekends down the line, but for now I am delighted to have picked this up as my everyday car. The running costs are very reasonable for what it is and I seem to be averaging ~30MPG as I do a mix of urban and non-urban driving.

Anyway I think the car is a credit to its past owners. The 150K miles on it don't show at all, apart from a small bit of wear on the drivers seat bolster. A few months back it got a new thermostat and bushings and had over €1000 spent on it. I know the last two owners, the car was never seen to be dirty or abused, and prior to that it was a company car for Philips Electrical.

Should you have any information or suggestions for me fire away, I was thinking of getting the rear lip spoiler and the splitter section of the rear bumper carbon wrapped.

Also are there any points I should pay attention to on the car or with owning a BMW in general?